Five North Shore High School teams qualified for the New York State

Athletic Association's Scholar/Athlete team award in the winter season:gymnastics, women's basketball, wrestling, women's winter track and men's winter track. To qualify, the combined grade point average of all team members must average over 90 percent.

Gymnastics team members were Rachel Glassman, Kathryn Millington, Emily Gonthier, Isabella Vitti, Liza Mercadente, Leslie George and Alexandra Muller. Women's basketball team members were Kristina Alonge, Catherine DeStio, Megan McCormack, Kelly Henry, Kristen Reynolds, Christine Andrews and Lauren Clausen. On the wrestling team were Eric Gruebel, Peter Blackburn, Stephen DiDamo, Glen Gerbush, Michael Treco, Brian Stern, Matt DeStefano, Matt Kaplon,

Daniel Carleton and Thomas Boehm. On the women's winter track team were Sophia Pappas, Adrienne Koslow, Ashley Lopez, Tyler Murphy, Angela Shih, Kaitlyn Arctander, Eva Scholmann, Ariel Felix, Lauren Koslow, Debra Gilbert, Jessica Fortunato, and Brianna Welch. Men's winter track members were Michael Gerbush, Zach Travis, Michael Capobianco, Daniel Beiser, Taylor McGrath, Jacob Tobol, James Vena, Erik Johnson, Christopher Muoio, Brian Cai, Matt Freiman and Christopher Bauer.

"Thanks to our faculty, staff, coaches, and of course our scholar/athletes, for your continued dedication to excellence in all aspects of every student's education at North Shore," said Superintendent Dr. Edward Melnick.

By Shaun Manning

The Vikings continued their title quest by traveling down Northern Boulevard to battle the Indians of Manhasset. While the Indians have struggled this year, the team proved to be a worthy opponent and gave the Vikings a competitive series as clouds hovered over the field all game. Big Billy turned in a solid performance. He threw five innings striking out 9, walking only 2 and scattering 3 hits. Melillo was also the story at the plate when he hit a third inning grand slam to break the game open. He later added a bases-loaded walk to finish the day with 5 RBIs. Mike Capozzi came on to close out the game for the 9-2 victory. Three minutes after the last pitch, the skies opened up and the Vikings took the bus ride home wet, but happy to notch another win.

On Tuesday the Vikings played host as Will Kunkel took his turn in the rotation. Kunkel was again masterful, hurling seven shutout innings, allowing only 4 hits and striking out 4. North Shore scratched across a couple of runs early, and the game remained close until the 5th, when Freddy Benyo tomahawked a shoulder high fastball into left center for a two-run homerun. The lined shot gave the Vikings a comfortable 5-0 lead on the way to the 6-0 victory. PJ Como continued to wreak havoc in the leadoff spot by going 2-3 with a triple, scoring two runs. Billy Melillo also contributed two sacrifice flies to the winning effort.

Thursday North Shore was back on the road for a 4:30 start at Manhasset. Tommy Luchese took the mound coming off his strongest performance of the year so far last week. Luchese dominated for 5 innings, mixing in a great change with a combination of knee high fastballs to keep the Indians off balance. In the sixth, the defense again let Tommy down. Tommy held his ground, got two big outs, and then gave way to closer Mike Capozzi, who came in to get out of a bases loaded jam and pitched a scoreless 7th for the save. Calvin Kyrkostas was the offensive star of the day, by going 2-3 with 3 RBIs, two coming on a big single to left center in the top of the 5th.

On Friday the Vikings traveled to Glen Cove High School for their version of the back yard brawl. As it was not a league game and it was the fourth game of the week for each team, both pitching staffs were depleted. The Vikings turned to Mike Capozzi, who was throwing for the third time this week. Mike turned in four solid innings and left the game in the 5th, leading 5-4. The Vikings, who were down early 3-1, stormed back in the fourth by scoring four runs. Mike Ragusa provided a huge RBI single to right center and Freddy Benyo rocketed a double over the outstretched glove of the left fielder to drive in two. The double gave the Vikings a 5-3 lead. North Shore had gotten on the board an inning earlier with a long home run off the bat of centerfielder PJ Como. In the 5th, in relief of Capozzi, the Vikings had to turn to Justin Lee. Justin, who has played well at short, was making his first appearance of the year on the mound. He was pressed into service because of the absence of right-handed reliever Steven Heimer. Justin came into a tough spot...bases loaded and one out, leading by one. He struggled with the first batter, walking him on five pitches to tie the game. Then Justin bore down and got the next batter to hit a chopper over the mound, which he fielded and turned a spectacular inning-ending double play. Glen Cove pushed across 3 runs next inning to go on to win the game. It will be interesting to see the outcome if the two happened to meet in the playoffs with rested pitching staffs. "I thought the kids played well today and would like to see this team again in the playoffs and see what happens," stated Coach Trenkle.

The Vikings ended the week 14-4 and 12-2 in conference play, maintaining their hold on first place. So come out and support your Vikings!

Coach: Bob McKee

On Tuesday May 3 varsity cross country and winter track and field Coach Ed Corona coordinated the Annual Frank Maier Invitational Track and Field Meet at North Shore High School. An outstanding performance was once again placed by senior Christopher Bauer in the 400 intermediate hurdles. Chris won a first place finish in this event which he has dominated in divisional. A very strong performance was placed by Jeremy van der Heiden, the team captain, in the 100M dash. With favorable weather, and continued strong effort, the team continues to show growth and improvement.

On Friday the team traveled to Manhasset High School to participate in the annual Gold Coast Relays. Sophomore Darrel Handler teamed up with Chris Bauer to win first place medals in the 2 x 400 IH. The shot put relay team of juniors Eddie Seelig, Michael Ferrara and sophomore Andrew Khani took first place against strong competition.

On Saturday the Vikings traveled to the Seahawk Invitational at Cold Spring Harbor High School. Chris Bauer once again took the gold medal in the 400 Meter IH. Freshman Alex Grapstein made a name for himself in the league by taking first place in the freshman triple jump. His classmate and teammate Jake Tobol won the silver medal. These two young athletes will undoubtedly be a force to be dealt with in the triple jump throughout their high school careers due to their positive attitude and talent.

Coach: Brian Kline

The North Shore Vikings started the second half of their tennis season this past week. The squad looked to improve on their 3-5 record. On Monday, North Shore played first place Garden City away. Although the team lost 0-4 before the rain stopped play, all three matches left on the court were led by the Vikings. Michael Diamond, Eli Berger and the doubles team of Zack Ziskin and Steven Gelberg were winning their matches. This match set the tone for Wednesday's big match-up with Mepham.

Earlier in the season, the tennis team gave a very weak effort and played poorly against Mepham, 1-6. In a thrilling team match, the Vikings pulled out a 4-3 win. Every player gave an amazing effort. Highlights were Dave Edesary and Kenny Mandel pulling out a 6-3, 7-6 (10-8) win at third doubles to clinch the match, and the dynamic duo of Steven Gelberg and Zack Ziskin coming from behind 2-5 in the third set to win 7-5 at first doubles. StevenWaldman, battling the flu, played with heart and inspiration. He won the first set, but ran out of energy only to lose in three sets. The team showed the desire Coach Kline has been looking for all season.

The Vikings made it two in a row by beating Glen Cove 4-0. Michael Diamond continues to improve every match. He is playing with more consistency at the first singles spot. John Bert won at second singles in an entertaining match against Alexander Prince. Both players were hitting heavy shots throughout the match. Rain came early and halted play.

North Shore hopes to continue its winning ways with matches this week against Sewanhaka, Clarke and Oyster Bay.

Coach: Andrew Richter

The golf team had another successful run of matches this week. The Vikings had a clean sweep of Oyster Bay in both home and away matches. Looking for a perfect 3 and 0 week, the team took on Plainview on Thursday, May 5 at Glen Head Country Club. The match turned out to be the closest of the season, with the Vikings coming up one stroke short. The team will close out the season next week with a second match against Glen Cove and a second chance at the one-shot winners, Plainview.

Coach: Bernard Dellaquila

In another second half comeback, the boys' lacrosse team beat Malverne 12-6. After trailing 3-2 at the half, the Vikings turned on the offense, outscoring Malverne 10-3. Senior Captain Matt Brancaccio had 4 goals, while Chris Palliser had 3 and Joe Valasiadis added a goal and 3 assists to lead the offense. The team's Conference III record is 6-2 and its overall record is 11-4.